Afghanistan is, as of March, 2008, the greatest illicit (in Western World standards) opium producer in the world, before Burma (Myanmar), part of the so-called "Golden Crescent". Opium production in Afghanistan has been a significant problem (or a significant business) for Afghanistan, especially since the downfall of the Taliban in 2001. Based on UNODC data, there has been more opium poppy cultivation in each of the past four growing seasons (2004-2007), than in any one year during Taliban rule. Also, more land is now used for opium in Afghanistan, than for coca cultivation in Latin America. In 2007, 93% of the opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan. This amounts to an export value of about $4 billion, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords and drug traffickers. In the seven years (1994-2000) prior to a Taliban opium ban, the Afghan farmers' share of gross income from opium was divided among 200,000 families.
In 2001, before US invasion of Afghanistan the opium production in Afghanistan had dropped to nearly zero. Although some conspiracy theorists have suggested that it is the reason US attacked Afghanistan. However, it does not bode well with the regional politics. It might have been one of the factors but not the main factor. During the preparations for Afghan attach there was a large scale propaganda from UK and US stressting poppy cultivation was support the Taliban Regime and was funding al-Qaeda.
"The arms the Taleban are buying today are paid for by the lives of young British people buying their drugs on British streets… It is a regime founded on fear and funded by the drugs trade[6]… The biggest drugs hoard in the world is in Afghanistan controlled by the Taleban," Tony Blair, 2 October, 2001[4]
However, soon after the war reports started appearing that under Taliban poppy cultivation had nearly eliminated and somehow they kept the production under control and only after US occupation the opium production revived and reached new levels. In favorable conditions like in 2007 the opium yields can be upto 42.5kg/hectare (producing 8,200 tons of opium in 2007). Ten kilos of opium gum can be converted into one kilo of base morphine.1
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Origins and CIA Connection
Production of illegral drugs was banned by the Afghanistan Government in 1957.
Pre-War Era
In 1983, the WWF successfully persuaded the Pakistani government to create two national parks directly on the Afghan border, renowned for the quality and abundance of its opium poppy, which was assiduously cultivated by the Mujahideen. It was also a primary staging area for smuggling arms into Afghanistan.
Prior to the Soviet-Afghan war, opium production in Afghanistan and Pakistan was channelled to small regional markets. There was no local production of heroin. According to Alfred McCoy, however, within two years of the CIA operation in Afghanistan, border between Pakistan and Afghanistan became the world’s top heroin producer, supplying sixty percent of U.S. demand. In Pakistan, the heroin-addict population went from near zero in 1979, to 1.2 million by 1985, a much steeper rise than in any other nation. CIA assets again controlled this heroin trade, but once the heroin left Pakistan’s laboratories, the Sicilian mafia managed its export to the U.S., which it distributed to street gangs through a chain of pizza parlors, according to the DEA.2
Soviet period (1979-1989)
As the Afghan government began to lose control of provinces during the Soviet invasion of 1979-80, warlords flourished and with it opium production as regional commanders searched for ways to generate money to purchase weapons, according to the UN. (At this time the US was pursuing an "arms-length" supporting strategy of the Afghan freedom-fighters or Mujahideen, the main purpose being to cripple the USSR slowly into withdrawal through attrition rather than effect a quick and decisive overthrow.)
U.S. officials had refused to investigate charges of heroin dealing by its Afghan allies 'because U.S. narcotics policy in Afghanistan has been subordinated to the war against Soviet influence there.' In 1995, the former CIA director of the Afghan operation, Charles Cogan, admitted the CIA had indeed sacrificed the drug war to fight the Cold War. 'Our main mission was to do as much damage as possible to the Soviets. We didn't really have the resources or the time to devote to an investigation of the drug trade,'… 'I don't think that we need to apologize for this. Every situation has its fallout…. There was fallout in terms of drugs, yes. But the main objective was accomplished. The Soviets left Afghanistan.'[2]
It was alleged by the Soviets on multiple occasions that American CIA agents were helping smuggle opium out of Afghanistan, either into the West, in order to raise money for the Afghan resistance or into the Soviet Union in order to weaken it through drug addiction. According to Alfred McCoy, the CIA supported various Afghan drug lords, for instance Gulbuddin Hekmatyar [3].
Drugs and Arms
In 1983, 10,000 tonnes of weaponry was supplied to Afghan fighters through Pakistani channels. The supply rose to a staggering 65,000 tonnes by 1987. An estimated $9 billion were spent by the US National Security Council and the CIA to arm the Mujahideens.
Warlord period (1989-1994)
When the Red Army was forced to withdraw in 1989, a power vacuum was created. Various Mujahideen factions started fighting against each other for power. With the discontinuation of Western support, they resorted ever more to poppy cultivation to finance their military existence.
Taliban Period (1994-2001)
The fanatic sections of the Mujahideen supported by Arab extremists like Osama bin Laden as well as the Pakistani secret intelligence service ISI form the Taliban movement towards the end of 1994. In 2000 the Taliban imposed a strict ban on opium cultivation.
Afghanistan briefly witnessed one of the world's most successful anti-drug campaigns when Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar declared that growing poppies is un-Islamic. Some historians say the Taliban allege cynically cut production to increase the values of their own stockpiles, although never verified, the effect in the fields was dramatic: a year's crop was almost entirely wiped out and production was down to zero.
Taliban Commitment to Poppy Eradication
6 Oct 1998: Taleban officials in Afghanistan say they are ready to destroy this year's opium harvest and to impose an immediate and total ban on poppy cultivation, in return for recognition of their government by the United Nations. A Taleban spokesman Mullah Abdul Hyemutmain said Afghanistan — which is the world's second biggest producer of opium and heroin — was facing serious economic hardship and needed international help. [22]
6 Apr 2000: Afghanistan's ruling Taliban yesterday announced it burned nearly 400 acres of poppy, the flower from which opium is extracted, fulfilling a promise to the United Nations to cut back opium production by one-third. Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, the raw material used to manufacture heroin (Associated Press/CNN Interactive, 6 Apr). Pino Arlacchi, executive director of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention welcomed the announcement and said he hoped this was the beginning of a serious commitment by the Taliban to eradicate poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.[26]
28 Jul 2000: Afghanistan's ruling Taleban has declared a total ban on the cultivation of the opium poppy. Mullah Omar has also said Afghanistan needs help to eliminate poppy growth. "As we have only limited means to utilise towards this end, we consider it the responsibility of the international community to assist us in this matter," Mullah Omar is quoted as saying by Reuters. [23]
22 Sep 2000: The ruling Taleban in Afghanistan has called on the international community for urgent funding to help eradicate opium poppies…The UN says it is closing a programme offering farmers assistance to grow crops other than opium at the end of the year — six months earlier than planned — because of lack of money.[25]
30 Oct 2000: Afghanistan's Taliban leaders are trying to end their country's standing as one of the world's leading suppliers of heroin[27]
As a result of this July 2001 ban, opium poppy cultivation was reduced by 91% from the previous year's estimate of 82,172 hectares. The ban was so effective that Helmand Province, which had accounted for more than half of this area, recorded no poppy cultivation during the 2001 season.
Pre-Sep 11
Afghanistan's ruling Taleban has called on the international community for urgent funding to help it eradicate opium poppies. The head of the Afghan Drug Control Programme in Islamabad said they were trying to implement a recently announced ban on narcotics but were in a critical economic situation. The United Nations has been forced to abandon its programme providing opium farmers with alternative livelihoods because of a lack of international support.[9] (22 September 2000)
International narcotics experts have commended Afghanistan's Taliban rulers for virtually wiping out opium production from a country that until two years ago provided three-quarters of the world's supply [8]
"Whether we like the Taliban or not we have to recognise that they have taken action to solve the problem… In a way, it is a historical event." Bernard Frahi (UNDCP regional head for south-west Asia)[8] (17 February 2001).
US$ 43 Million
The Bush Administration gave the Taliban $43 million in May 2001 for their destruction of Afghan opium crops in February.
Post-Sep 11
In the months of September and October there was a slurry of propaganda alleging that Taliban in Afghanistan were promoting poppy cultivation. However, within three months the same news channels started saying completely opposite that Taliban were eradicating poppy. Comparisons of different news channels and governments is given below with references.
| September/October 2001 | 2002-2009 |
|---|---|
| "The regime [Taliban] uses poppy-derived income to arm, train and support fundamentalist groups including the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Chechen resistance. There have also been allegations of Osama bin Laden’s personal involvement in drug trafficking to finance al Qaeda’s activities," US Gov[1] | Please see below |
| "The arms the Taleban are buying today are paid for by the lives of young British people buying their drugs on British streets… It is a regime founded on fear and funded by the drugs trade[6]… The biggest drugs hoard in the world is in Afghanistan controlled by the Taleban [the entire speech was on Drugs and Taliban connection]," Tony Blair[4] | Tony Blair never gave any other speech negating his remarks on pre Sep-11 Taliban Regime. So he presumably still stands by his quotes |
| "An estimated 3,000 tonnes of the drug enough to produce heroin with a street value of £20bn is thought to be held by the region's drug lords [under Taliban]", BBC[5] | The growth in Afghanistan's opium crop began in earnest after the overthrow of the Taleban by US-led and Afghan forces in 2001.[15] (29 February 2008) - But since the Taleban was ousted a year ago, the industry has flourished [16] |
| "Afghanistan used to produce more than three-quarters of the world's opium from vast fields of poppies, particularly in the west and south-east of the country, both Taleban-controlled areas… where chaos reigns, drugs are freely available. It is another strong reason for seeking stability in Afghanistan as soon as possible," BBC[7] - In many areas farmers it spoke to said that - contrary to official policy - there had been no attempts to eradicate opium crops, BBC [21] | Eradicating the cultivation of opium poppies was one of the Taleban's few triumphs… The Taleban had religious zeal and an effective state security apparatus on their side… But when they were defeated, farmers started planting again, BBC, 25 July, 2002 [18] |
| Despite the Taliban’s public condemnation of the illicit narcotics industry, virtually all of Afghanistan’s opium poppy cultivation and morphine base and heroin processing laboratories are located in Talibancontrolled territory. The Taliban profits from the Afghan drug trade by taxing opium production and drug movements.[10] | "In July 2000, the Taliban outlawed poppy cultivation. No one outside the regime knows exactly what motivated the ban…But to the amazement of most outside observers, the Taliban made the ban stick, using their brutal reputation to scare farmers into complying. In one year, the opium harvest fell 98 percent, from more than 4000 tons in 2000 to 80 tons this year. The number of acres under cultivation dropped from more than 200,000 to less than 20,000. Even suspicious U.S. officials were impressed. Using satellite spy photos, they established that poppy cultivation had in fact plummeted. "This was something unprecedented in the world's history," says a State Department analyst who tracks the Afghan drug trade… Last year, even as the Taliban outlawed opium cultivation, the Alliance continued to allow it. In fact, poppy cultivation tripled in the areas controlled by the Alliance. "From the point of view of the opium trade," says a U.N. anti-drug official, "the Northern Alliance is not better than the Taliban." [28] |
| "Credible DEA source information indicates ties between the Taliban and the drug trade. The Taliban directly taxes and derives financial benefits from the opium trade. They even provide receipts for their collected drug revenues," Asa Hutchinson (DEA Administrator) [11] | to-be-added later |
| “al Qaeda earns cash by protecting Afghanistan’s shipments of opium bound for the West.”[12] | |
| There are news reports that the British Prime Minister’s office has evidence that Osama bin Laden is personally involved in the opium trade to buy arms for al Qaeda and to undermine the West [13] | to-be-added later |
| The Taleban regime allows Bin Laden to operate his terrorist training camps and activities…and [bin Laden] protects the drugs stockpiles. [14] | |
| "They are selling it in Russia and Europe. It's the main source of terrorism funding, and they are using legitimate sources to cover it up - groceries, fruit stands, garages," Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the Centre for the Study of Corruption in New York [21] | |
| "The Taleban had benefited financially because they imposed a 10% tax on all crops - opium included," Bernard Frahi (UNDCP Islamabad Regional Representative). - However, the Taleban deny that taxes on opium bring in huge amounts of money to fund their military activities.[21] | "It was unlikely the Taleban were involved in large scale drug trafficking.. If the Taleban had organised the drug trafficking they would have kept the production," Bernard Frahi (UNDCP Islamabad Regional Representative).[24] |
| "Crackdown on opium trade [by Taleban] was a charade," Telegraph[29] | "The fundamentalist Taliban regime enforced a ban on opium production in Afghanistan and in 2001, the last year of its control over most of the country, 185 tons of opium were produced," Telegraph[30] |
There was a considerable propaganda on BBC and all major US news channels about Taliban supporting and profiting from poppy production, both on TV News and News websites. During this time many of the web-pages stating the real story that Taliban had eradicated the poppy production went dead. Although many were put back up after a couple of months but some are still dead. An example of dead page is posted here, from the acclaimed BBC News website.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2150580.stm
Here the page links to an older story, "How the Taleban kept opium poppy growth under control", however, the webmaster forgot to link back the page (after the end of the propaganda) and to this date (2009) the story is not to be found on the internet.
Post Afghan Attack
13 Nov 2001: The Kabul office of the Arab satellite TV channel al-Jazeera was destroyed this morning by what it claims was a US missile.
29 Nov 2001: Ayub Afridi is released from Pakistani prison.
21 Feb 2002: The United Nations' drug control agency (UNDCP) has expressed deep concern over what it says is the current high level of drug production in Afghanistan[20]
"The size of the opium harvest in 2002 makes Afghanistan the world's leading opium producer," The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report
Despite its own figures showing the Taleban had cut Afghanistan's heroin production by about 95%, the report claimed that heroin had "financed the former Taleban regime".
The UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) report, released on 26 February, said that Afghanistan produced 3,400 tonnes last year, up from 185 tonnes in 2001.
Early 2002
Earlier this year, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced that almost a third of the country's poppy fields had been destroyed.
Mr Straw has congratulated the interim government on its opium eradication scheme which he said would help stem the flow of heroin into the UK.
But BBC Radio 4's Today programme found there was little evidence that the crops were being eradicated [19].
2004: "The opium economy in Afghanistan has to be dismantled with democracy, the rule of law and economic improvement. It would be a historical error to abandon Afghanistan to opium right after we reclaimed it from the Taliban and Al Qaeda", Antonio Maria Costa, (UNODC Executive Director) [no mention of near eradication of opium under Taliban] [17]
7 Dec 2004: Hamid Karzai was formally sworn in as president of a democratic Afghanistan
25 April, 2005 Bashir Noorzai is arrested
Key Drug Players under Karzai
Ahmad Wali Karzai (President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai's brother)
Production and distribution regions
The following areas of Afghanistan play a role in the drug traffic:
"Southern region" of Helmand and Kandahar provinces, on the border with Pakistan, which are the highest-volume areas for drug transactions. There is a traditional route from Helmand, through Pakistan, to Iran
Herat, in Herat Province, the Northern Alliance stronghold, which borders Iran
Faizabad, in Badakhshan province, which has borders with Tajikstan, Pakistan, and China.
Only 1% of the international opium profits come to Afghan farmers and dealers [18]
